ok we're here and on

Well here we are the start of our long day. Brian is in and going now. He didn't sleep much last night (big shocker) but he was ok. A lovely Waahoo young couple decided to fight out their problems on our hospitality house lawn in the wee hours of the morning and that kept him awake. By some miracle (and a good dose of benadryl) I slept like a log. We had a lovely chilly 10 min walk over to the hospital this morning at 5:30. They got him in and set up w/ his 2 martini's in his IV and we said our 'see you laters' by 8:00. Now we wait. I felt good about his OR nurse. Sounds like the rooms going to have around 8-10 people in there watching and monitoring his nerves and hearing while they mess around. The length of surgery they now say can be anywhere from 4-10 hours so it could be a long one for him. The good thing is he will be oblivious to time now for a good while. It's me and miss Louise and Christine who are in for the wait. The circulating RN was a sweetie and said she'd call me every couple hours to keep me up to date on how he's doing. So for now we are sitting here in this lovely cafeteria (their waiting room sucks!), bellies full of candy and reading smut hollywood magazines. I promise when we hear an update I'll post again. Love you all, Alli

good day

We had a good day today. Got some good information and some details that made us just feel more comfortable knowing what to expect. His surgery will start by 0730 Friday morning and will last 4-6 hours which is better then the 6-8 we had originally thought. Still one night in the ICU (which PTL they told me I get to stay with him in the ICU d/t a new policy, yeah!) then any where from 5-7 days all together before discharge. The big hurdles they warned us of are nausea, (cause the tumor is near the center part of the brain that affects nausea) and stability and pain. He had a more in depth nerve/hearing exam and that lady told him he didn't necessarily have damage already to his hearing organs just an interruption in the nerve communication to his brain from the inflammation around the tumor which could possibly improve once the tumor is removed. Still no certainties of course but there's hope. They said they would remove all the tumor they could safely and what they couldn't they would just leave behind but shouldn't cause him any more problems through the years. They will keep an eye on him w/ it w/ MRI screenings. His and my spirits are up tonight. We're back now with the Bit at my parents house for one last squeeze then off tomorrow night to UVA. Deana is bringing a laptop through the weekend and I found a medical library w/ computers today so I can keep my blog up to date on his status. And we made sure to scout out a suitable place to get a good cup of coffee for his stay which is a big deal for us. God's taking care of all the details isn't He!!??!? :) Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers!!!

ok, time to write about this....

(and, no this isn't his MRI but his looked similar to this image I found online, just on the wrong side)

Well most of you know what new and interesting craziness has taken hold of our home this spring season. I waited to post about it cause I just wasn't ready to discuss it openly. Now just for the official annual record that I order of my blog posts we can't leave this one out!! So here's the deal, Brian got diagnosed w/ an Acoustic Neuroma which is a benign tumor that grew behind his auditory nerve in the left side of his brain. We got tipped off after some bad persistent head aches since Christmas this year. A routine CT scan found the tumor in January and it's been a wild ride ever since then to determine treatment options. We are scheduled for surgery this Friday. My sweet mother and sister in law will be there for the event and some of his recovery. They anticipate a 5-7 day hospital stay and an additional 3-4 week recovery once he's home. I'm planning on posting blog updates on his status for a while while I have access to a laptop hopefully. Our spirits are up and we are ready to face this hurdle in our lives head on. God had been so good to us to turn this situation from scary to fixable and He's given us daily strength to handle this trial. We've had our ups and downs but all in all we are ready to get this over with and behind us. We appreciate all your prayers and thoughts as we head into this week. We love our church and our family and friends for all the support we've received. Thanks and we'll keep you posted on how it all goes.

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40: 29-31

small group buddies....

This past weekend we had a much long overdue get together w/ our buddies from New Century Church. We've been on a bit of a break after almost the entire group decided to spit out a baby in the past year. We had some laughs pizza and a good prayer time for Brian to complete the evening. It was a great time w/ everyone. Lets do it again soon!!!

Tate Date!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Caroline took some time to warm up to the toddler wanting SOOOOO much to be near her and talk her ear off, not to mention a lot of poking her for attention. After a while she realized she was the older and wiser of the two and that must be cool.

loves her uncle Tater!

Abigail didn't get to pick her usual mint green w/ chocolate chips, she shared my oatmeal cookie w/ Reese cups in it.....but she was ok w/ it.

to be honest I can't tell you what flavor this was...maybe bubble gum?? I don't know but it was blazing blue and she loved it!

Ben opted for the dark chocolate flavor that gave him such a lovely shade of orange for his mouth. You can almost see the sugar pumping through his veins in this great photo!!! It's a good thing we took them to the park to run it off after this.

love those skinny legs of hers! Reminds me of growing up w/ another young lanky legged girl :)

Ben taking the little Bit under his wing and showing her how it's done.

poor baby, that train just kept going on w/o her! :)

Ben tried so hard to get the girls to do the "train" but Abigail just could not grasp to hang on all the way down.

I felt soooo bad for poor Ben....but I remembered the days when Shannon would torture me as as kid too. I guess it's some sort of Tate right of passage. Abigail and Caroline were certainly cool w/ it. :)

Brian trying to give the Bit a boost up the slide. She wanted so badly to climb up super fast like the other 2!

my usual 'wrinkles and teeth' pose w/ my sweet neice and nephew. Love the leftover blue lips!

Well sorry this took so long to get posted but my computer was having issues. But we had a great pizza spring date play date w/ the Tates last week. We filled our bellies at stop number 1&2 for pizza then ice cream which was a big hit with everyone. Ben and Caroline tasted (and modeled) the colorful kids flavors for us all to get a good laugh. And Abigail tried desparately hard to keep up w/ her Carowine! We finished the overstuffing w/ a late evening romp at the park and all 3 kids did a super job of entertaining us all. We went home exhausted full and happy. Thanks gang! Lets do it again soon!!!!!

Time w/ Da Meadows!!!

can't believe that daddio caught our 'time out' moment on camera! Gotta love the look on my face. I scare myself sometimes!!! But you know what....? She picked up those toys before we left....I won!!

Yeah!! We got to see our good long lost friends the Meadows this weekend. They were in town for her sister's wedding at the homestead and chose (oh, darn) to fly back to Nashville via Roanoke. :) It was a weird location for a 2 hour play date but who cares! The airport I'm sure was happy to host our get together. They both looked wonderful and skinny and little Darcy Jean stole all our hearts especially the Bit's. But hellow!? How could she not sense some closeness to those genes huh?! Great fun and great to see you guys! Can't wait to crash at your house this summer. Love ya lots!

Ok, I caved...

I did have to crawl into this section a few times to give her a boost back down. Ugg!!!

Well I finally broke down and let Abigail play last week in one of those hideous indoor playgrounds at McDonalds. My buddy Madeline had worked the night before and had to stay awake for a few hours before she could go to bed so she needed to be out of the house. She really wanted to play at the indoor jungle gym so I reluctantly agreed. Usually I tell Abigail those things are just for sick kids to play in. I absolutely hate them and I'm bound and determined they are full of fecal matter and snot up in those mysterious tubes high above the ground!!! Luckily the Bit was a little intimidated by the depth and spread of them so she actually only followed her Lilly up threw it a couple times and she wasn't thrilled about either time. She would hollar for me and crawl to a window like a lost little hamster and cry in the plexi glass look through. I coached her down and mostly she just played underneath squealing and laughing at the other kids coming and going. I bathed her as soon as we got home and hopefully we'll opt for another activity next trip. But my friend Madeline is worth it, and Abigail is always thrilled to get to squeeze in some Lilly-ness.